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| United States Patent |
5,027,302
|
|
Asanuma
, et al.
|
June 25, 1991
|
Device for switching vehicle operating characteristics
Abstract
A device for switching vehicle characteristics which includes means for
setting information concerning a road, such as a highway, in the running
path of the vehicle, means for detecting the fact that the vechicle comes
to a designated road portion in the running path and for producing output
information concerning said predetermined road portion and means for
effecting switching of the vehicle characteristics in response to the
output information concerning the road.
| Inventors:
|
Asanuma; Nobuyoshi (Saitama, JP);
Ishida; Shinnosuke (Saitama, JP);
Hasegawa; Hiroshi (Saitama, JP)
|
| Assignee:
|
Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Tokyo, JP)
|
| Appl. No.:
|
392086 |
| Filed:
|
August 10, 1989 |
Foreign Application Priority Data
| Aug 10, 1988[JP] | 63-199612 |
| Current U.S. Class: |
701/48; 280/5.514; 280/5.518; 280/5.519 |
| Intern'l Class: |
B60G 017/00 |
| Field of Search: |
364/424.01,424.05,443,449
280/707
|
References Cited
U.S. Patent Documents
| 4526401 | Jul., 1985 | Kakizaki et al. | 280/707.
|
| 4789935 | Dec., 1988 | Buma et al. | 364/424.
|
| 4827416 | May., 1989 | Kawagoe et al. | 364/424.
|
| 4903983 | Feb., 1990 | Fukushima et al. | 280/707.
|
| 4922427 | May., 1990 | Yokote et al. | 364/424.
|
Primary Examiner: Black; Thomas G.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Lyon & Lyon
Claims
We claim:
1. A device for switching operating characteristics of a vehicle,
comprising:
means for storing road information concerning a kind of a road on a travel
path of the vehicle;
means for detecting the kind of road on which the vehicle is running
including a navigation system in which a position of the vehicle on X-Y
coordinates is found by an arithmetic operation, while detecting a running
distance and a running direction of the vehicle, and a current position of
the vehicle is displayed on a road map having the same X-Y coordinates,
means for producing an output of predetermined road information from said
means for storing road information depending upon the detected kind of
road at said current position of the vehicle displayed on the road map;
and
means for effecting switching of the vehicle operating characteristics in
accordance with said output of predetermined road information.
2. A device for switching vehicle operating characteristics according to
claim 1, in which the kind of the road includes a highway or a surface
street road.
3. A device for switching vehicle operating characteristics according to
claim 1, in which the kind of the road includes a straight road or a
winding road.
4. A device for switching vehicle operating characteristics according to
claim 1, in which switching of the vehicle characteristics is made on a
suspension system of the vehicle which can switched between a soft or hard
condition.
5. A device for switching vehicle operating characteristics according to
claim 1, in which switching of the vehicle characteristics is made on a
steering system which can be switched between a sharp or soft condition.
6. A device for switching vehicle operating characteristics according to
claim 1, in which switching of the vehicle characteristics is made on a
height of the vehicle which can be switched between a high or low height.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to device for automatically switching vehicle
characteristics, such a softness or hardness of a suspension system of the
vehicle, sharpness or hardness of a steering system of the vehicle or the
like, depending upon the state of a road on which the vehicle, such as an
automobile, is running.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, a vehicle has been developed in which a suspension system can be
switched to soft or hard condition or a steering system can be switched to
soft or hard condition, by a driver's manual selection of a change-over
switch. In the vehicle of this type, the suspension system is set to its
soft side and the steering system is set to its sharp side when the
vehicle is running on a normal surface street, while the suspension system
is set to its hard side and the steering system is set to its soft side
when the vehicle is running on a high-speed highway, for example, so that
the vehicle can be driven with optimum vehicle characteristics, depending
upon a state of the road on which the vehicle is running.
In such a vehicle, a device for switching the vehicle characteristics is
manually operated by a driver who selects a change-over switch, and such
selection of the switching of the vehicle characteristics requires a
complicated operation, because it is difficult to set the optimum vehicle
characteristics, depending on the state of a road, by properly selecting a
combination of a plurality of systems such as the suspension system, the
steering system and the like.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is a general object of this invention to avoid the disadvantages of the
device for switching the vehicle characteristics according to the prior
art.
It is a specific object of the present invention to provide a device for
switching vehicle characteristics in which the state of a road on which
the vehicle is currently running is detected, and the vehicle
characteristics such as softness or hardness of a suspension system,
sharpness or softness of a steering system or the like can be
automatically switched depending upon the state of the road.
In accordance with the present invention there is provided a device for
switching vehicle characteristics which comprises means for setting the
road information concerning the kind of a road, such as a highway or the
like, in the running path of the vehicle, means for detecting the kind of
road on which the vehicle is running and for producing an output of
predetermined road information in response to the detected kind of road
and means for switching the vehicle characteristics, such as softness or
hardness of the suspension system of the vehicle, sharpness or softness of
the steering system of the vehicle or the like, in response to the output
of the road information.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the construction of an embodiment of the
device for switching the vehicle characteristics according to the present
invention.
FIG. 2 shows an example of a picture shown on a display unit of the
embodiment shown in FIG. 1.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a positional relationship of a highway relative
to a surface street.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION
Now, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with
reference to the drawings.
The device for switching the vehicle characteristics according to the
present invention shown in FIG. 1, comprises a navigation system part g
which includes a distance detector 1 for measuring the running distance of
the vehicle by counting the number of pulse signals which are generated in
response to the rotation of a tire, for example, of the vehicle at every
one unit as running distance; a direction detector 2 for detecting the
azimuth or the amount of variation of the running direction of the vehicle
which varies depending upon the running of the vehicle, said direction
detector consisting of a geomagnetic sensor, a gyroscope or the like; a
signal processing unit (computer control unit) 3 for receiving detection
signals produced from said distance detector 1 and said direction detector
2 and for successively finding positions of the vehicle on X-Y coordinates
by an arithmetic operation at every one unit of running distance of the
vehicle and effecting a central control of a whole system, said signal
processing unit consisting of a CPU, a programming ROM, a controlling RAM
and the like; a travel path storage unit 4 for successively storing
positional data concerning constantly changing positions of the vehicle on
the X-Y coordinates found by said signal processing unit 3 and for holding
said data as finite continuous positional information corresponding to the
current positions of the vehicle; a map information storage medium 5 in
which a plurality of previously digitized map information is stored in the
form of file units; a storage medium reader unit 5 for selectively reading
out the required map information from the storage medium; a display unit 7
for displaying a picture of a map on a picture plane in response to the
map information read out by said reader unit and for constantly and
renewedly displaying the current position of the vehicle, the running path
to the current position, the current running direction and the like on the
same picture plane of said display unit on the basis of the positional
data stored in the travel path storage unit; and a manual operating unit 8
for feeding an instruction for operation to the signal processing unit 3
and for effecting proper operations, such as designation for selection of
a map to be displayed on the display unit 7, setting of a starting point
of the vehicle on the map displayed on the display unit, changing of the
setting of a reducing scale rate of the displayed picture and rotation of
the displayed picture. The device according to the present invention
further comprises a drive 11 for switching the suspension system of the
vehicle between a soft or hard condition, a drive 12 for switching the
steering system of the vehicle between a soft or sharp condition, both on
the basis of the road information RD produced by the signal processing
unit 3 in the navigation system part 9, and a controller 10 for properly
controlling the switching operation of the drive 11 and the drive 12.
In the navigation system part g, the selectively read out map is displayed
on the picture plane of the display unit 7, as shown in FIG. 2.
Furthermore, a mark M1 which indicates the current position of the vehicle
which is decided on the X-Y coordinates, with the reduced scale of the map
predetermined by the signal processing unit 3, on the basis of the travel
of the vehicle from the starting point S set on the map, a mark M2 which
indicates the running direction of the vehicle at the current position and
a mark M3 which indicates the travel path from the staring point S to the
current position are displayed on the same picture plane, in such manner
that the travel path simulates the actual travel of the vehicle.
In the construction of the type as described above, the present, invention
is characterized by designating the kind of a road, such as highway,
surface street road, straight road, winding road or the like, on the
expected travel path on the map displayed on the picture plane, by an
input operation of the manual operating unit 8 under the control of the
signal processing unit 3, previously inputting all of the information
concerning the road, such as highway or the like, judging that the vehicle
has come to the designated road on the expected travel path when the mark
Ml indicating the current position of the vehicle displayed on the picture
plane has come to a present position on the expected travel path, and then
producing an output concerning the predetermined road information
corresponding to the designated road judged as mentioned above.
At the time when the highway or the like on the expected travel path on the
displayed map is designated and the information concerning the road, such
as the highway or the like, is previously inputted, the position of an
entrance IN of the highway H on the map displayed on the picture plane is
set and the road information indicating the highway is inputted, for
example. In the same manner, the position of an exit OUT of the highway is
set, and road information indicating a surface street road is inputted. In
FIG. 3, L indicates the usual road.
The signal processing unit 3 is so constructed that when the mark Ml
indicating the current position of the vehicle comes to the preset
position indicating the entrance IN of the highway H on the expected
travel path on the map displayed on the picture plane, the road
information RD concerning the highway which has been previously inputted
at this position is fed to the controller 10.
Accordingly, the controller 10 acts to read out the fact that the vehicle
has entered the highway, on the basis of the content of the road
information RD at this moment and then acts to cause the respective
switching control operations of the suspension system switching drive 11
and the steering system switching drive 12, thereby switching the
suspension system of the vehicle to its hard condition and switching the
steering system to its soft condition.
Furthermore, the signal processing unit 3 is so constructed that when the
mark Ml indicating the current position of the vehicle comes to the
present position indicating the exit OUT of the highway H on the expected
travel path on the map displayed on the picture plane, the road
information RD of the surface street road which has been inputted at this
position is fed to the controller 10, in the same manner as in entering
the highway.
Accordingly, the controller 10 acts to read out the fact that the vehicle
entered the surface street road, on the basis of the content of the road
information and then acts to cause the respective switching control
operations of the suspension system switching drive 11 and the steering
system switching drive 12, thereby switching the suspension system of the
vehicle to its soft condition and switching the steering system to its
sharp condition.
The device may be modified in the manner as hereinafter described. That is,
in place of designating the highway or the like on the expected travel
path, by the input operation of the manual operating unit 8 and inputting
the road information RD concerning the designated highway or the like, as
explained above, it is possible to cause the map information storage
medium 5 to previously store the map information together with a position
of the highway or the like on the map and the road information RD thereof
and to feed the previously stored road information RD to the controller
10, depending upon a position of the mark Ml, under the control of the
signal processing unit 3, when the mark Ml indicating the current position
of the vehicle has come to a predetermined position on the map displayed
on the picture plane.
In the above description, the present invention was described, with
reference to the switching of the suspension system and the steering
system, but the present invention can be applied to switching of the
number of valves of an engine that are to be operated or switching of the
increasing or decreasing of the height of the vehicle.
As explained above, the present invention provides a device for switching
vehicle characteristics which employs a navigation system for successively
and renewedly displaying a current position of a vehicle on a map
displayed on a picture plane as the vehicle proceeds, in which when the
vehicle comes to a highway or the like, the predetermined road
information, which has been previously registered, is read out, thereby
detecting a state of the road on which the vehicle is presently running
and the vehicle characteristics are switched depending on the detected
state of the road, for example the steering system of the vehicle is
switched between the soft or hard condition or the steering system of the
vehicle is switched between the sharp or soft condition, according to the
present control program. Thus, the present invention presents a superior
advantage in that the setting of the optimum vehicle characteristics can
be automatically effected, depending upon the state of the road, on the
basis of combination of a plurality of systems, such as a suspension
system, a steering system and the like.
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